What the church in the West should know about missions in Africa

A few months ago I was engaged in a conversation with an American pastor who is slowly becoming a dear friend. His church has sent and supports missions in Europe, South America and Africa. Upon hearing that I am from Africa he wanted to hear my thoughts about missions in Africa and what his church should know about the state of the church on the continent. What started off as a one on one conversation ended up being a group talk with a few other brothers joining in. This prompted me to put my thoughts into writing for the sake of clarity. Two caveats are wise at this point. Firstly, I will largely draw my thoughts from the Zambian scene, and secondly, I will speak in general terms. So, there are exceptions to every point that follows.

There are gospel preaching churches in Africa

There was a point in time in the history of Africa when everywhere you stepped the gospel had not yet reached there. Thankfully, through the pioneering work of a legion of missionaries, the gospel reached and spread in Africa. As a result, there are gospel preaching churches in Africa today. Yes, cults are proliferating, the prosperity gospel in hybrid form is flourishing, liberal churches have their growing masses and animistic beliefs are ever rampant. However, that is not the whole story. God has His remnants who have not bowed their knees to Baal and they faithfully believe, live out and preach the true gospel. The 19^th century version of African paganism and spiritual darkness is now two centuries behind us. The Lord has raised up voices who herald his word to the lost and he has built up solid, healthy churches in the midst of falsehood.

There are church planting churches in Africa

Furthermore, there are churches who are faithfully, sacrificially and cheerfully planting churches in places where the gospel has not reached. These churches are faithful and passionate about missions and send out missionaries. And while these statistics may not appear on the international missions sites, believe me, western missionaries are not the only missionaries doing church planting in the cities, towns and villages in Africa. In some cases the church planting efforts are done in partnership between African and western missionaries. It is worth noting that the majority of the evangelical denominations have been in existence for over 100 years on the continent and they have been proclaiming the gospel. Contrary to popular belief, the Lord is building His church in Africa and yes there is still plenty of work to be done to reach the estimated 350 million unreached people on the continent but it is important to note there are churches in Africa obeying the great commission and planting churches.

Western worldview is not equal to a biblical worldview

In my interaction with and conversations with western missionaries, very few of them adjust to the culture they go to minister in and most of them struggle with cross cultural relationships and ministry. It is not uncommon to find western missionaries serving in Africa living in a western bubble, rather than learning the culture and developing meaningful, sincere relationships with the local people they minister to and work with. Conversely their African brethren will often not be forthright with their counterparts as well. This invariably leads to all kinds of relational and ministerial problems. One unfortunate result of this is that they fail to understand the culture and develop the tendency to label everything African as evil and consciously or unconsciously brand everything western as biblical. The outcome then is that you have ministries in the depth of Africa that look like and act as if they are in the west. Sadly, this does is encourage the false notion that Christianity is a white man’s religion. Western missionaries however who are humble enough to listen, learn and build sincere, transparent and healthy relationships in the midst of diversity display the power of the gospel before the watching world.

Western fights are not necessarily African fights

In 2007, I met an African brother who, after the introductions, asked me what my thoughts were on the King James Version debate. I responded by asking him if he worked with American missionaries. I was right! We have some American friends who love a good fight and are more than eager to make a mountain out of an anthill. All you have to do is visit the blogosphere to find out what the latest fight is all about. Granted, this spirit is not always wrong because there some fights that have to be fought with the same vigor cross-culturally. However, some fights are contextual and should be kept that way. It only breeds division and strife to make an issue of something in a place where it is a non-issue. Just because “rumble in the jungle[1]” was a hit does not mean every fight should be brought to Africa!

Mutual partnerships are healthy

There is a lot the church in Africa can learn from the brethren in the West, and vice versa. Missions is God’s global work and agenda that he has entrusted to the church universal. There is therefore great potential for healthy mutual partnerships between churches locally and internationally in church planting endeavors. We can learn a lot from the church at Philippi (1:5) in their efforts to support the proclamation of the gospel. I fear that too many of us are building little kingdoms for ourselves and are sad and envious when others do the work and see God’s blessings. What better way to display God’s glory than mutual partnerships between churches from diverse backgrounds—and all for the proclamation of the gospel?

Conclusion

Unity in diversity is beautiful and God glorifying when achieved. It is, however, hard work. Cross-cultural ministry is both an opportunity and a challenge to display the power, wisdom and glory of God before the watching world. Many times we mess it up because we have the propensity to make ourselves and our desires the center of missions. Remember, missions is God’s idea and it is His work. Let us seize the opportunities that our diversity brings by joyfully, graciously and honestly working together through the challenges of cross-cultural missions.

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[1] The 1974 boxing fight between Foreman and Ali held in DRC (formerly known as Zaire)

Five types of members in churches

Whenever I am preparing to start preaching through a book, after my usual study and break down of the book, I listen to sermons on the entire book. This helps me to be ministered to through the book, but it also helps me glean some insights from other preachers who have gone before me. Last year I preached through the book of Nehemiah and listened to Alistair Begg’s series on the book. In one of the sermons he surmises that there are always five kinds of people wherever God’s work is being done. It was true in Nehemiah’s day; it is true in our day as well.

The relaxers

The first group he calls the relaxers. These are the people who have been around for a while and have become comfortable with the status quo. They are convinced that they have arrived because of what they did eons ago. This group is quick to tell you of their escapades in the past and their contributions then. By and large the relaxers have entered into semi-retirement. They do nothing; they are not burdened about anything, and they do not serve anywhere. They have boarded the bus; they sit in the back and watch as the driver takes them places, while occasionally commenting on his competence to drive.

The investigators

The investigators are a curios but cautious bunch. They wonder what is going on; they are not sold; even though they are part, they really do not belong and do not participate in the life of the church. But for some reason, they want to be in the know. So, they inquire and question and wonder what’s going on and why it is going on that way.

The agitators

This group is never content with what is going on, and they are a hard group to please. They will disagree, complain and even mock whatever is happening. In the worst scenarios this group soon becomes the opposition and will often become activists who incite others. This critical group can take energy from you and leave you deflated if you do not face them with a God dependent attitude.

The expectant 

They are eager, zealous and diligent. They have a heart of service and are ever expectant and excited at what the Lord is doing in, through and among them. They are asking what is coming and what can be done next and how they can get involved. They find joy in spending and being spent. They also look for progress and growth and invariably get frustrated with the lack of it.

The organizers

They thrive on structure and order. They want to organize things and sort out things. Procedure and policy are their middle names! They are often frustrated with disorganization and want everything clearly laid out and thought through.

Alistair Begg charges that a biblical leader who is doing God’s work, God’s way, will stir the relaxers, answer the investigators, focus the agitators, guide the expectant and structure the organizers. As long as we have breath and there is still work to be done, we should never be content, and we should always strive to do more for the Lord.

Too Busy to pray

This past week I found myself studying the first chapter of Mark for some work I was asked to do. Mark is action packed and moves at a fast pace, as is seen from the reoccurrence of the word “immediately.” In a space of 40 verses, John the forerunner is introduced, Christ has arrived, been baptized, was tempted in the wilderness, and began his ministry, preaching, healing and casting out demons and choosing the first disciples. In the midst of this activity I was tempted to skim over verse 35: “… he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed”. At a time when his fame was spreading, and he was experiencing success in what was becoming a busy and demanding ministry, Jesus prayed. That struck me! It struck me because when I am busy I neglect prayer. In my thinking, spending quality time in prayer when I am pressed for time is not the best use of my time. Such reasoning is dangerous and detrimental to my spiritual growth and ministry. Busyness and prayerlessness are a dangerous combination whose symptoms are seen in our attitude, work and relationships.

Impatience

When we pray, we are surrendering to the will of God and humbling ourselves to wait on the Lord, knowing it is in Him that we live, move and have our being. Only a heart communing with God in prayer will have that spirit of surrender and patience. A busy and prayerless heart, relies on its own strength and power to get things done and make things work. Consequently, such a soul gets drained, weary and frustrated. The result is you go around snapping at everyone in your path: your children and spouse at home, your coworkers, the weather, fellow road users, church mates, etc.

Anxiety

As a result of being self-reliant while lacking self-sufficiency we become experts at worry. Even when hear and read the comforting words of Scripture, to cast our cares upon the Lord for he cares for us, we in truth do not believe them. We pray, but in essence we are still confident in our own abilities and carry burdens the Lord did not intend for us to carry. The buzz word today is “stress”, we have used it so much that it has become a fancy term; the biblical term for stress is anxiety! Being griped by fear because of the uncertainty of a situation. As a result we end up grumpy, restless and irritable.  

Pride

Busyness means activities, programs and events. It is easy for one to be prayerless and still host a successful program or event. It is a mystery of ministry that one can be relatively successful while not walking or depending on the Lord, at least from the onset. Such a situation is fertile ground for pride. A person who prays earnestly and consistently has no basis to be proud because in prayer he declares his poverty and reliance on God. Not so for a prayerless individual; he relies on his experience, gifts and planning and any ounce of success soon gets to his head. As a result, such a person ends up becoming the center of ministry and ungrateful.

Joylessness

There is a childlike joy that comes from fearing God and submitting to him and his will. This joy is a result of being satisfied with your relationship with God and being found in his presence and finding that in his presence there is fullness of joy, and at his right hand there are pleasures evermore. It comes from a soul that proclaims with David “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land” (Ps. 63). Prayerless Christians and ministers are devoid of joy because in their pride they have become self-reliant, which then makes them impatient, anxious and joyless. 

O Lord I can be so busy and caught up in the activities of life that I neglect to pray. Cause me to realize that I was created to live in dependency. May what was said of Charles Simeon be true of me: “Never did I see such consistency, and reality of devotion, such warmth of piety, such zeal and love… he devoted the first four hours of the day to private prayer and the devotional study of the Scriptures…”

SECRET SINS IN MINISTRY

NOTE: This is a revised version of a blog from last year. 

People often assume that Christians in public ministry are immune to sin and temptation. Christians in the public eye often face the danger of assumed holiness. By that I mean, we often assume because someone has taught it they have lived it. While there are scandalous sins we constantly look out for in the lives of those who are in ministry such as sexual sins, financial misappropriation, and/or failure in marriage, there are some secret sins that often go unnoticed or unchecked. These often render a man ineffective and unusable in the Lord’s work. What makes these dangerous is their subtlety coupled with the lack of sincere accountability in the ministry.

MINISTERIAL PRIDE

There is the obvious and disturbing pride that you can smell and sense from a distance in a person, then there is the deadly and subtle one that rarely comes out publically. It is the pride that has to do with one’s motives for doing what they are doing. Consequently someone can do a perfectly good thing and yet their pride is fueling them. This pride is seen in two forms in ministry;

Glorying in results

In our desire to make a name for ourselves we are so driven that we want results and we want them at all costs. And when the results do not come we are discouraged and want to quit. As a result of this desire for results you find people preoccupied with numbers. How many people came, how many conversions did we get, how much was given etc. Now obviously statistics are necessary but numbers do not equal success. One test for not glorying in results is whether you are satisfied and joyfully serve regardless of the numbers. Does a great Sunday mean it was packed and bad Sunday mean attendance is low? The problem with glorying in results is that you focus on the quantity rather than the quality.

Self-importance

The second sign of ministerial pride is having a sense of self-importance. You soon began to feel you are indispensable to the work or you make yourself the center of the work that you become practically become indispensable to the sustainability of the work. You also want people to praise you and acknowledge your work and efforts. It’s not uncommon to hear ministers say things like “they do not recognize the work am doing” imagine Jeremiah looking for recognition, such kind of whining can be an indicator you have a higher of self than is biblical. The other way this level of self-importance is noticed is in our response to criticism or opposing views. Those of us in ministry should remember we are not all knowing, God is! Statements like I agree with you but… or I see your point however… now obviously there times you have to insist and hold on to your point because you are right, but if you are always right then there is a big problem. Ministers should not behave like politicians who have issues with those who oppose or criticize them. Let us have the mind of Christ (Phil 2:1-10).

 MINISTERIAL JEALOUSY

“But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.” James 3:14

Pride will breed envy and jealousy. Jealousy is hurt and bothered when others succeed. Jealous is seeing God bless others and question His wisdom in giving others gifts and not you. Jealousy makes us forget that every good and perfect thing comes from the Father, who gives to all freely (James 1:17). In our pursuit for self-importance we turn ministry into a competition, brothers in Christ behave like supermarkets competing for consumers. And doing everything in their power to tarnish the other’s name. Jealousy and its sister envy hinder fellowship and partnership. Guard against this deadly sin, it ruins your soul. Instead let our hearts thrill with joy and gratitude at the blessings and success of others. When it comes to brothers and their ministry resolve to be their biggest supporter and not their biggest critic as a result of envy!

MINISTERIAL LAZINESS

“Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy one to those who send him.” Proverbs 10:26

 There is a danger of laziness in ministry because there is no supervisor checking your logins and logouts. Furthermore a lot of ministerial work is done in the closet so no one can really see whether you are been faithful or not. It is no wonder that ministers are tempted to do everything but their primary tasks of prayer and the study of the word. We should remember that laziness does not always mean idleness, it is also means aimlessness. You might be busy and yet you are busy doing nothing! Is it any wonder that some ministers are often disorganized, terrible at managing time and always doing things at the last minute? Laziness invariably leads to half prepared messages and poor planning and before long the minister and the people suffer from spiritual malnutrition, which then leads to unnecessary friction in the church.

MINISTERIAL BRASHNESS

But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 1Thessalonians 2:7

A brash spirit is rash, impetuous and mean. It is the opposite of gentleness. Gentleness is defined as “sensitivity of disposition and kindness of behavior, founded on strength and prompted by love.”[1] It is one of the clearest evidences of salvation in a believer. The temptation to be harsh and mean is ever present for ministers. It is easy to get fed up, irritated with people and treat them with contempt. While leaders must be thick skinned they should have a gentle and tender heart. Hotheadedness and rashness in word, attitude or deed should not characterize a minister of God.   

The words of Spurgeon to his ministerial students are worthy of reflection for any minister.

“When God calls us to ministerial labor we should endeavor to get grace that we may be strengthened into fitness for our position, and not be mere novices carried away by the temptations of Satan, to the injury of the church and our own ruin. We are to stand equipped with the whole armour of God, ready for feats of valor not expected of others: to us self-denial, self-forgetfulness, patience, perseverance, longsuffering, must be every day virtues, and who is sufficient for these things? We had need live very near to God, if we would approve ourselves in our vocation”[2]

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[1] W. Barclay, New Testament Words, pp. 94

[2] Spurgeon C.H. Lectures to my students. Pp 15

Lessons on Preaching

This past July, I started school, and the course’s main focus is expository preaching in the context of the local church. The beauty about the course is that you get to sit under the teaching of different men with vast experience in preaching and pastoral ministry, but they also hold differing theological positions within evangelical Christianity. All this makes for a rich experience for the students and many unforgettable lessons that left me doing quite a bit of self-retrospection.  Here a few that I have been mulling over.

Study hard without data dumping

Someone once said, “A preacher who goes into the pulpit without preparation is a fool. A preacher who goes into the pulpit relying on his preparation is a bigger fool.” The apostle Paul admonishes his son Timothy to labor to the point of exhaustion in his study of God’s Word, so that he may handle it accurately. Study is a non-negotiable for the preacher! That said, preaching should not be reduced to data dumping. The pulpit is not the place for the preacher to bring out all his study tools and expose his knowledge (or lack thereof). The work of a preacher in preaching, after diligent study, is to deliver the truths of Scripture simply and logically. Throwing theological jargon and going on pointless mumblings are the preacher’s real temptation in sermon delivery.

Clarity clarity and more clarity

The basic goal of communication is to deliver your message to the recipients in a manner that is simple and clear for them to understand. Preachers are no different in their task of preaching. Clarity is an essential part of a sermon. Therefore, the message must be conveyed in a language and with concepts the audience can understand. Another aspect of communicating with clarity is that there is a logical flow to the sermon. One reason preachers lack clarity is the problem of preaching to an imagined audience, instead of preaching to the audience in front of you. The gospel message is an important, urgent matter that we cannot afford to lack clarity in our preaching.

Preach doctrine while applying it to the people

There are preachers who claim they do not preach doctrine; they simply preach the Bible. While their intentions are admirable, their logic is self-contradictory. To preach the Bible is to teach doctrine; it is in this light that Paul urges Timothy to teach what is in keeping with sound doctrine. Biblical preaching will shape a congregation doctrinally. However, preaching doctrine does not mean lack of application. In fact biblical doctrine affects life style. And biblical preaching tells both the “what” and the “so what”. The first questions gives you truth (doctrine), and the second question gives you the implications of the truth in your life (application).  

Work on your holiness

This was the most convicting of the lessons. God uses instruments that honor and please him in their lives. The most important work a preacher can do is focus on being holy and fighting sin in his life. That means commitment to the study of God’s Word, prayer and meaningful fellowship with the brethren. This holiness will then be seen in relationships, attitude towards others and ministry. A holy minister is not preoccupied with his reputation or success but on being faithful in the task his master has called him to. As a result, such a minister is not worried about the empty spaces in the pew but instead focuses on the ones that are filled up.

Soak your preaching in prayer

After all has been said and done, preaching is not about the mechanics, study and styles though all those are important. A man might have all those nailed down and still not bear fruit in his preaching because his is not enabled by the Holy Spirit. It is for this reason that preaching must be soaked in prayer if it is to be effective. Unless the Lord works in the hearts of men, the preacher becomes a mere orator. Prayer is an act of dependence of the work and power of God in changing lives, including your own as a preacher.

As a I pondered on these and many other lessons, I could not help but reflect on the words of Walter Kaiser when he says:

“Regardless of what new directives and emphases are periodically offered, that which is needed above everything else to make the church more viable, authentic and effective, is a new declaration of the scriptures with a new purpose, passion and power.”[1]

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[1] Walter C. Kaiser. Towards an Exegetical Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981, (p. 242.)